“Wu Yong, the Resourceful Star, might have guessed something and has chosen to go to a different settlement.”
Meanwhile, Ji Ye had also figured out why Wu Yong wasn’t with Song Jiang.
Although he was known as the “Resourceful Star”, he didn’t actually have much strategic insight.
However, he was rather skillful in subtle tricks and reading people.
Therefore, it was very likely that he had realized what was going on.
Because of that, he didn’t want to hang out with his “Brother Song Jiang” anymore, although there was a time that he was ready to die for the man.
Of course, to avoid Song Jiang, Wu Yong’s ideal choice was to come to the Twin Dragon Island.
But he couldn’t.
Because he tried once and failed.
The offering he had tried to respond to was the Pure Blue Glass Heart dropped by the Eagle Men’s providence seed player, and the Twin Dragon Mount had used it to summon Yan Qing.
Ji Ye didn’t like Wu Yong very much, but he still had to admit that with Wu Yong’s popularity and fame, and the fact that he was ranked the 3rd of the 108 stars, he would definitely come with a formidable talent. There was no doubt that he was capable enough to take the challenge of the Perfect evaluation.
But he really shouldn’t have chosen the Pure Blue Glass Heart, which was a very demanding offering.
Because of that, he had lost his chance to come to the Twin Dragon Island.
“But what about Hua Rong? Has he noticed the complication as Wu Yong has?” Ji Ye asked.
“Hua Rong was summoned by a settlement known as the ‘Breeze Fort’!” Director Zhou explained to Ji Ye.
“In fact, he’s been there for a while.
“Because that settlement wasn’t able to finish the Ten-Species Competition task and was only at Extraordinary Rank-4. At this stage, they can do nothing but go where the tide takes them and has been struggling to make ends meet.
“Even their settlement core has been destroyed. The few players can’t go offline and have been hiding from place to place with the dozens of remaining natives. Hua Rong’s capability is the only thing that has kept the settlement running.”
“Breeze Mountain” and “Breeze Fort” might sound alike.
But they were, in fact, two different settlements. Just like the Twin Dragon Mount, the Breeze Mountain was the territory of a few Water Margin heroes.
Breeze Fort, on the other hand, was a regular settlement like a common village. In the novel, Hua Rong was initially the governor of the fort and a government official like Song Jiang.
Both his wife and son lived in Breeze Fort, which was probably why he chose to go there when the settlement was already in danger.
But the settlement was simply too weak and couldn’t even finish the Ten-Species Competition task. If they couldn’t even bring new players in, how were they ever going to survive the A Hundred Vying Barges tasks?
“It’s true. They can’t go on anymore.
“Because their settlement core has been destroyed, the players haven’t been able to go offline. This piece of information had to be brought out by a player after he died.
“He said that the alien attack had been so fierce recently that even Hua Rong couldn’t hold on much longer.”
Director Zhou shook his head, his tone sympathetic.
But his face lit up after that when he looked at Ji Ye and said, “Junior Brother, this is a great opportunity. Your settlement should prepare for it in advance!”
“Let’s just let nature take its course!”
Of course Ji Ye knew what Director Zhou meant.
After a hero died, they would lose all their memory of this “lifetime”, and their evaluation would drop.
Even so, their most fundamental skills would still remain.
Take Ninth Uncle as an example. Although he had died once, he was still able to exert the power of his talismans and ghost-expelling skills.
And his capability wasn’t his only merit. Because of his great popularity and face, the “God Invitation” talent he gained after he reached Extraordinary Rank-5 was extremely powerful. The improvement it gave to the Water Margin heroes of the Twin Dragon Island was as significant as that brought by a Perfect hero.
The same rule would apply to Hua Rong as well.
As the only hero of the 108 Liangshan members known for his archery skill, Hua Rong was definitely one of the top ten most popular Water Margin characters, if not top five.
He was surpassed by people like Wu Song and Lin Chong only.
Even after his evaluation was downgraded, he would still have his archery skills.
Because of the lower evaluation, his summoning requirement would be less strict as well, and he would need to be summoned again.
And that would create a problem. Once Hua Rong died and his soul returned to the long river of civilization, a great number of settlements would be qualified to summon him!
“So, while we can still keep this piece of information from the others, Junior Brother, shouldn’t you get ready for the sacrificial ritual now and summon Hua Rong? You have to stop Samsung and Song Jiang from summoning him!”
Director Zhou was perplexed by Ji Ye’s reaction.
“Unfortunately, you’re a little too late to bring me the news. If you were half a day earlier, I would have kept the two high-level Souls of Civilization. But now… we can only hope that Hua Rong can hang on for a few more days!” Ji Ye said in resignation.
The timing wasn’t very good at all.
Not only had they used up over a dozen Souls of Civilization, but they had also depleted the Superior offering that could be used to summon Hua Rong.
It was true. Ji Ye could use his Fusion talent to create a Superior offering.
But how could he be sure that the offering he made would definitely summon “Little Li Guang”, who had lost his identity and memory?
Moreover, from what Ji Ye had learned, if one were to summon a hero that had died once, the next ritual would also require a Soul of Civilization of a higher level.
If a hero used to have Extraordinary Rank-9 capability, once his settlement was destroyed, the Soul of Civilization used for the ritual to summon him again had to be at least of that level.
Since Hua Rong had been able to fend off the enemies with only over a dozen people, it was very possible that he had reached Extraordinary Rank-7 or -8.
The Twin Dragon Island didn’t have any Souls of Civilization at that level.
Since that was the case, Ji Ye could do nothing but let nature take its course.
After all, although Hua Rong was a powerful archer, he was still an Extraordinary Perfect hero.
Fierce generals like Huo Qubing, Lü Bu, Huang Zhong, Gan Ning, and Taishi Ci were all great archers. And Li Guang, the Flying General, was also a hero of the Han Dynasty.
The Twin Dragon Mount’s plan couldn’t be changed for Hua Rong alone.
If in the end, Hua Rong really chose to go to that “Water Margin” to follow Song Jiang, they couldn’t stop him.
“By the way, I heard from Elder Meng that a lot of people applied to become registered permanent residents of Yang City?”
At that point, Ji Ye changed the subject and asked Director Zhou.
